Yet another decades-old science fiction trope has made it off the page and into the real world – architects are starting to design ‘responsive structures’, buildings that will sense their environment and adjust to it. Imagine buildings that can brace themselves for an earthquake or high winds, that can adjust their shape and surfaces in response to different temperatures and levels of sunlight, or adjust their interiors to accomodate fluctuating numbers of occupants at any given time. Innovations of this type could contribute greatly to the conservation of energy resources by eliminating the need for air conditioning.

There’s no shortage of laws governing what one can and cannot do in space (although some believe there should be more). But there’s one little snag that could land the burgeoning space tourism industry in a legal mire unless it is addressed soon – where exactly does ‘the sky’ end, and ‘space’ begin? An Australian professor has expressed his concerns that would-be turistas will want to be able to certify that they have indeed ‘been into space’ and not just ‘very high up in the sky’. Sounds a little specious when you put it like that, but it’s the sort of open question that gets lawyers foaming at the mouth.

Satellites and space probes are pricey bits of kit – so why the hell are the ESA smashing SMART-1 into the surface of the moon on purpose? Two reasons: first up, SMART-1 has met all of the goals of its three year mission with great results, including successfully testing a new ion engine design and comprehensively mapping the Lunar surface; and secondly, as there’s no way to get it back to Earth, they might as well let it go out in a blaze of glory which will also supply valuable data on lunar impacts. Amateur astronomers should man their ‘scopes at around 5:40 am (GMT) on Saturday September 2nd.

It’s pretty hard to find anyone who thinks that wind farms are a flat-out bad idea. But once you start suggesting locations for them, the NIMBYs crawl out of the woodwork by the legion, armed with arguments as to why putting one near their home is a terrible idea. Enter one MIT researcher with a visionary idea for placing huge wind turbines somewhere with lots of wind that won’t spoil anyone’s back-porch skyline – why not float the things out in the ocean?

Flickr has integrated geotagging with its photo hosting services, so that you can now tag a photo with the location it was taken in, and browse maps to view pictures that have been submitted by others. Why is this worthy of a mention on Futurismic? Because it’s a convergence phenomenon, and a sign of the times. It is becoming increasingly possible to discover real street-level detail for almost anywhere in the world – as photos, writing and sound, as reviews and ratings and opinion, all of it contributed by people just like yourself. The world is gaining the ability to communicate in meaningful ways, and right now could never be too soon for us to start seeking out one another’s ideas and opinions.